The Lord can Satisfy You

The Lord Can Satisfy You

by Eric Knutson

Eric Knutson with us. He is from Ankeny Baptist Church. He's also a student at the seminary at Faith Baptist Bible College and Theological Seminary in the MDIV program.

And that's about all I know about him. So I'm going to ask Eric to come up and share the word of God, the Thanksgiving theme as we move into this season of thanking the Lord for his goodness, thanking the Lord for so much that he has done for us. And so maybe this is little unorthodox, but would any of you have something to share of Thanksgiving as we come into this Thanksgiving season? I found it to be so good from my heart and for my soul to just regularly take times to thank God, to adore him for his character.

So would anyone just say, yes, I want to share something in Thanksgiving to God. Just speak up and share. Yeah, go ahead.

Praise the Lord. Isn't it great how God blesses with family? That's one of the greatest blessings and joys in life. Anyone else? Great.

That was awesome. What an opportunity to steward what God's given here. Anyone else? Yes.

Yeah, that's great. Yeah. There's so much to be thankful for in wave of family.

I'm so thankful for my family as well. Anyone else? Yep. Yeah, I think of that verse.

It says I have no greater joy than to know that my children walk with the and that I'm sure that is so precious. Yes, exactly. I love how Jesus says I'm the way, the truth and the life.

He brings us into life with God. And so we're not just saved to go on and just know we're going to heaven, but we're saved to know that we have life and we can find that in God's word. He has promised us great things from his word that we can learn and see the wonders of who our God is.

Maybe one more before we finish and go into our time of the word. Anyone else? All right. If not, we'll turn to psalm 23 and once you've got there, we will go ahead and open in a word of prayer.

God, we thank you so much for your word. We thank you that it is a firm foundation for us, that it is a place we can rest our lives upon. We thank you, provide us such good wisdom and guidance from it.

And so we just pray for this morning that you would encourage our hearts, you would uplift us, you would help us to see more clearly who you are, to find greater joy and delight in who you are as our God, as our Savior and as our shepherd. This morning, God, I just pray that our hearts would be open, would be soft, would be ready to receive your word. We love you, Jesus Christ.

In your name we pray. Amen. As we turn to our message for this morning, I want to start by looking at a quote from Tom Brady, NFL legend and perhaps one of the most successful athletes of all time.

And that might seem unusual because he's not exactly someone we look to for faith. But in a 60 Minutes interview, Tom Brady, a man with multiple Super bowl rings, millions of dollars, good looks, and incredible fame, he said, why do I have three Super bowl rings? And I still think that there's something more for me. And he's gotten more since then, since this time, he's wondered, it seems like there's got to be something more to life than what I've got.

Already he's wondering, he's looking. He's searching. Even after all that he's got, it's not enough for him.

What's going on? I mean, a lot of people would say, hey, man, you made it. You reached your goal, you achieved your dreams, you got the life. But he says, no, there's got to be more to this.

I mean, this can't be all that it's cracked up to be. Life's got to be more than just chasing after these dreams and the success that I've thought I've wanted. And that's the realization that Tom Brady came to.

The world promises us satisfaction through entertainment, a good career, a perfect family identity, through a safe and secure job, rest through meditation, through vacation, and through self care. These are the ways that the world looks at how we can get ahead in life. We're drawn to these things because they seem to promise us so much, so much satisfaction in life and joy.

They promise so much and seem to require so little. Yet from the mouth of the man with it all the promises of the world are failing. They're failing.

They can't deliver on what they seem to give us. So if you would turn to Psalm 23, if you haven't already, we will see. Only the Lord can satisfy you.

Only the Lord. Let's read the word of God together. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul.

He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup runs over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. In Psalm 23, we see that the Lord satisfies us by the means of three precious promises he gives us. In verse one, we see the Lord as your good shepherd, promises to provide for you.

That's the promise that God has put out to you today. He has encouraged you and lifted your heart up. He wants to do this for you, that you would see in his word that he is the God who will provide for you.

We see in the very first phrase, it says, the Lord is my shepherd. David, as he's talking about the Lord, he doesn't just identify the Lord as a general shepherd, as a shepherd to somebody out there in space, somebody else out there. No, he draws the Lord close in relationship to him.

In saying, the Lord is my shepherd. There's a closeness, there's an intimacy, a love, a care. That this relationship that David has with the Lord as his shepherd, he identifies and recognizes that the Lord actually has a personal relationship with him.

And so for you, consider in your prayers as you go and pray and talk to God, consider as you speak to him, if we're just speaking as a distant, impersonal provider who from a distance does these things, or do we recognize that as David did, that the Lord should be our shepherd? We should see him in that way as we talk to him, as we speak to him in our prayers. We should speak to the Lord as one who is personal, who is close, loving and caring to us. For any dads in the room, perhaps you think of yourself as a provider, and rightly so, as you think of this role.

You would never imagine going to work. And at the end of the day, you buy some bread, you come home and you drop it off on the doorstep, and then you go and do other things. You don't come home and actually spend time with your family.

Who would do that? That wouldn't make any sense. That's not how a good provider works. And none of you dads would do that.

That just wouldn't make sense. And David's getting at this idea that that's not how God is either. He doesn't just provide for us at a distance without care and love for us that comes near to us and close to us in love.

That's the God that we have and serve. And so let's view him and think of him in these ways. Let's allow these truths to stir up our hearts, to love and good works.

We also see the phrases we continue on I shall not want. This has the idea of I lack nothing. This refers to the completeness in which God provides for his sheep.

In God, David recognizes that he has all that he needs and all that he could desire appropriately, according to God's word. And so he's not saying that everything we could ever desire or ever be interested in will necessarily have. But he's saying that as we walk with God and we follow him, God's going to give us the things that he knows are best for us, that we need.

This is the relationship between a good savior and a good shepherd, and between his flock. He provides and takes care. He gives the needs that are needed.

And so what does this mean for us? This means that God will take care of the needs we have. And so I don't know this morning, what needs are on your heart. Maybe there's things that this morning you're wondering, where is God going to provide for what's going to happen? Like, how am I going to get the needs that I need? WhethEr it's financial, whether it's something health wise, whether it's something in your family, something completely different.

There's things that are on our heart that grip us, and we say, what's going to happen? How is God going to provide? We can look to his word and see that he is the trustworthy savior and shepherd, that he will provide those needs that we need according to his goodness and faithfulness. Following the sheep imagery, the green pastures we see, they refer to this place for sheep to find food. Frequently, food is compared to God and to his word.

For example, I am the bread of life. This contains this idea of peace and restfulness provided by God. This rest, it only comes from the guidance given by the word of God.

And so God provides for us. And one of the ways he provides is giving us a place of rest, of encouragement to be built up for our hearts to be encouraged. And that's the word of God.

So this week, in the moment where you feel discouraged, where you need comfort, you need to be built up. Go to the word of God. Take that time, whether it's each morning or some other time of the day that is good in your schedule, whatever it is, make time to be in God's word.

That is where God says the comfort you need will be found. He will provide the green pastures you need to continue to be built up, to be encouraged. We also see this idea of still or quiet waters.

This indicates an idea similar of rest that only is found in God. Have you ever gone looking at a creek or down to a lake or something like that, and it's just been really peaceful? Maybe you've gone fishing out there or you've just taken the kids and just kind of enjoyed a quiet afternoon. In some of these moments, as we go out and experience just the quietness and stillness of water, it can be a really refreshing experience.

And this is the idea that God's trying to paint, that David is explaining here. It's this idea that as we come near to God in our walk with him through prayer, as we turn to the word of God and we learn from it, theRe's a peace, a quietness and encouragement that comes as we do this. And so make time this week to do these things.

God is going to encourage you, like sitting by a quiet, still stream or a quiet lake as you just look out and enjoy the peacefulness. That's what God wants to provide for you. Imagine, meet with me, if you would, that you've been on a long hike or you spent a long day working outside, and then you experience a cool sensation of a cold drink.

Well, a few summers ago, my brother and I, we went hiking. We went up a big mountain. I'm actually from Canada, and so we were in the Canadian Rockies, and we were climbing up.

This was probably four or five years ago, and we were very foolish when we did this. We decided to go with no water and no food on a four or five hour hike. This was not a good idea, but we did it.

And when we started to come down the mountain, we were very hungry and we were very thirsty. And finally we got down. The whole way down, we were just so thirsty and so hungry.

And we finally found a restaurant to eat at. We found Olive Garden. And so we went and we just kept eating those breadsticks and drinking the water.

And it was so good. We just felt famished. And it was really encouraging for us.

And so this is the sensation that it's like for us when we experience closeness and our relationship with God. It's this idea of we've been hungering and we've been thirsting after something, and we have found it in Jesus Christ. We found it in our shepherd.

And God is actually glorified when we delight in him. When we come and we say, yes, he is the one that I have been looking for. And so in the same way that foolish people coming down from a mountain that are hungering and thirsting after food and drink, we in this world experience the same thing.

We go throughout our life and maybe we have coworkers or we have friends, we have people around us in life that maybe there's worldliness that we're experiencing throughout the week and that's common, that's normal. But as we experience that just in everyday situations, as we move about in our life, there's a sense of longing, of hungering, of thirsting. As Christians, where we say we want to be close to God, we want that fellowship with one another.

We want the relationship that our God provides as we become weary in this world. And so that's what God is offering to us, this sense of protection, of providing for us, of being there for us to provide exactly what we need from his word. In this weary and desperate world, devoid of true comfort, finding the satisfying word of God is made even more precious to us.

Without God, we wander and we're unsatisfied. But because of the Lord our shepherd, we have no need to worry, for he will supply our needs. Let's believe our Lord and take him at his word.

Maybe this morning you feel tired, restless, worn down by the carriers of this world. Perhaps you're discouraged, disheartened. God's word provides rest and peace.

When you turn to the word of God, do you merely do so out of obligation just because you feel like you have to? This passage from God's word provides us with encouragement that our time in the Word need not just be a moment of doing it, because we do it every day. That's not bad, and it's still good to do. But God is calling us to see our time with him as more as a time where he actually provides for us the very thing that we need to be built up, to be encouraged to continue on in life, to find the very joy, life and satisfaction that he offers.

Let's trust our good shepherd to feed and satisfy our needs as we enjoy his word. The next promise we see way that God is going to satisfy us is that God promises us his protection. Look at verses three and four.

He restores my soul and guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. In this verse we see that God's name and his reputation rely on his ability to defend, to lead, to take care of his sheep rightly. And so this is a strong foundation for us.

Because think about our God. Our God desires to glorify himself, that his name would be known across the earth, that people would see how great he is as our God. And that's what our God is.

Aiming to do. And so if he has saved us, if he has purchased us with his blood and he has promised us that he is going to provide for us, then for him to not do so would actually call his glory and his greatness into question. It would be like he'd done this, he'd taken us as his sheep, but then he couldn't actually protect us.

It wouldn't make any sense. It would detract from his glory. And so we actually see that his promise here, this is a strong foundation for us to count on, that he is going to be the one who protects us, because his namesake, his glory, depends on it.

And so for us, we can know that God is going to protect us. So let's see what that looks like. Well, in the Valley of the shadow of death, David is promised protection.

Even in the darkest moments of life. Are you yourself going through a dark valley, another dark valley of some sort, that's weighed you down and burdened you? I want to encourage you. Your good shepherd is with you, protecting you, encouraging you.

He is there to protect you. We're going to see how he protects us. We see the Rod for defense and the staff for direction.

As a shepherd, he led the flock along. He would use his rod to fend off animals such as wolves, bears and lions. This is the picture of a strong, caring and competent shepherd willing to approach wild animals to protect and care for the flock.

Second, we also see the Shepherd's staff had a long shaft with a curve at the end of it. And this was for directing and for pulling back the sheep, helping them to know where to go and what to do. And this is the idea that God, as our good shepherd, he is going to lead us.

He's going to help us to know which direction to go into. It says in the Book of James that as we cry out to God for wisdom, he will provide direction for us. And so I would encourage you that as we look to our God, he is the one that as we pray to him, as we talk to God, we turn to him in his word, he will provide us the direction for our lives that we need and so be encouraged by these things.

Remember who your God is. He will direct you, he will guide you. We saw just before that he uses his rod as well to protect them.

And so, as those come before, both our Church, corporately here, both the Church and you individually, to try to lead you astray or to lead you into false doctrine, even as we heard, our Lord, our good shepherd, is the one who protects us, who helps us to keep on the straight and narrow towards what is right and what is true. He is the one who, just as when a lion is coming towards to attack, as a bear is coming to take and to pry apart the very lifeblood of the sheep, God is the one who will take care and defend and protect you. We can trust and find comfort in God because he protects us from our enemies and directs us down the paths of righteousness.

Often we think of sheep and we imagine cute and innocent animals. However, sheep are often compared more to more as stupid and foolish animals. And if you've ever worked with sheep, you would probably know this.

It's quite an interesting experience. Just like the foolish and stubborn sheep often wander into harm's way, God's trying to get at us in this passage, that we also are prone to wander this way and that, and often write in to sin. And so part of this protection isn't just those that are outside of us, it's not just those that would come against us, but it's also our very own hearts.

Sin isn't just outside of us trying to come in and get at us. No. Sin is right within our own hearts, because we still have the flesh within us.

We battle against sin. And so God, as our good shepherd is encouraging us, is telling us here that he is going to help protect us as we stay close to him in relationship, that he's going to help protect us from sin. And so draw near to your God, prioritize your walk with God, because that is the way to stay away from sin.

If we want to avoid sin and we just say, there's something in our mind, a temptation, and we just say, I'm not going to do it, I'm not going to do it, I'm not going to do it. Well, imagine this with me. I tell you, don't think about pink elephants.

Suddenly you're thinking about pink elephants. It's very silly, but it's an illustration of how we think of something that we're trying not to. Instead, we have to turn from our sin and to focus on someone else.

That's Jesus Christ. I once heard the quote, for every one, look, you take at yourself, take ten at Christ. And this is an encouragement that as God provides, as he protects for us, one of the ways he does so is through our relationship with him, that we would stay close with him.

That is how we can avoid and stay away from sin that grips us. The protection and guidance of the Lord is a great and strong comfort to me. One of the main reasons I know, this is practically just myself.

I know my wavering heart, and I doubt my faithfulness. Often. A year ago or a couple of years ago, I had a conversation with one of my professors.

And it was a time when there were a number of ministries I was involved in. But I had gotten so focused on those things that I wasn't doing all of my schoolwork in my Greek class. And so he pulled me aside and he talked to me and he said, God wants you to glorify him in every area of your life, not just in some of them.

And so God helped to direct me and to lead me through just that conversation in providing me counsel and wisdom and direction just through my professor. And so I was thankful for that. And so some of the ways that God may direct and lead you and protect you is through the advice, the wisdom, the counsel of other people around you.

And so be built up and be encouraged in these ways that God will use others as well to do this. So often as I think of myself, I think of just my need for humility. So often my heart, just in the flesh, seeks to exalt myself or to compare with other people or to minimize others.

Far too often I find that my heart can be more invested in a sports team I'm interested in. For me, it might be my hockey team and what they're doing in free agency or whatever. I can be more interested in what I'm having for lunch than in my savior.

And that sounds terrible, but that's the flesh within us. In face of these concerns, I take heart, because I trust the guiding hand of my Savior to correct and to lead and to encourage me, to build me up into the paths of righteousness. I've been encouraged, but that by every time I've gone my own way, I've started to fail.

I've started to go after sin. God has sent people his word, used His Holy Spirit to bring me back, to come back, to loving him, to following him. And I'm sure as you think back on your life, you can think of moments like that where you start to go your own way.

But God, because of his lovingkindness, brings you back into right fellowship with him. So this morning, I ask you to trust the gentle hand of your Lord, the one who protects. When you stubbornly stray from your Savior and when you stumble into sin once again, turn back to your caring Savior and trust that the Lord restores.

The last promise that we have. As we look at the ways that God will satisfy us is the Lord promises to bless us in abundance. Through relationship.

Now, when I say abundance, I'm not talking about a health and wealth type of gospel. I'm not talking about getting rich. I'm not talking about always having money or always having as much health as we can.

Sometimes those things aren't going to be realities. Instead, here, David transitions from the imagery of the pastor with God as his shepherd to the banquet hall with God as his banquet host. Oftentimes we forget that God desires to bless us through relationship.

God tells us he has spread a table before us in the presence of his enemies. Here, David, he paints this picture of a banquet hall in the midst of enemies. And this seems like such a counter-intuitive picture.

We don't normally sit down and have a meal with people that are our enemies. That doesn't really make sense to us. That's not how we usually function.

Usually the people that we sit down and eat with are our family, our close friends, church members, people that we have good relationship with. And so how is David able to do this? His enemies likely were people who were actually chasing him down, maybe to kill him, maybe to do bad things and to harm him. And so how is he eating a meal here with God? What this picture is representing is that, yes, God is with him.

He has this relationship with God where he can eat, and he can be at this banquet table with his enemies because of the relationship he has with God, because he knows that God will protect and take care of him. This imagery is shocking that David is able to eat as God's guest with his foes at hand. David so trusts God's promise to bless him, that he can eat within the presence of his foes.

This points to God's generosity and his goodness. David continues by saying that his cup runs over. When I think of a cup running over, what I imagine is, I imagine a toddler who tries to start pouring a drink.

And if you've ever seen small kids try to pour something very quickly, there's a mess everywhere, and it's not going very well. That's not the idea of our God here. Our God doesn't have just random blessing that's coming in that's without meaning and purpose, and it's just random.

No, God is purposefully pouring out blessing from the relationship that we have. And so what this means is as we grow into relationship with God, as we take steps to walk with God and to love him, to walk closely with our God, he promises that there will be blessing for us in the joy that we find the life that we find in enjoying God. David's cup.

It's not running over like a toddler. Rather, as the Lord fills his cup with goodness, joy and mercy. It's a purposeful act of love so bountiful his cup cannot contain it.

David writes that the Lord anoints his head with oil because he sees himself as an honored guest in the house. These are these demonstrations of God's love and faithfulness. When you look around yourself this morning, do you feel like in life your enemies have assembled? Have they got you surrounded? Is that how you feel in life? The imagery of the table is one of safety and security.

God is calling us to see that the relationship we have with God is the place where we find safety and security from the things that threaten us around in this world. You can trust your God when your enemies seem to be all around us. We can look forward to dwelling with God forever one day.

And that starts today in our relationship with God, but then continues on into eternity. And that's the wonderful thing, is that the relationship we build with God today, we're looking forward to eternity when we spend that forever with God. What in this life can we take with us someday when we pass? Can we take our house, our car? Can we take our career and the things that we've built? No.

But we can take our walk with God, our relationship with him, and continue that forever and ever and ever. Verse six. It ends with David claiming that he will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

And for David, this house of the Lord symbolizes walking with the Lord in trust and dependence. For David to dwell, it's not entirely passive. It's this active trust in the Lord that says, when I feel the pressure of the world and those around me, I will depend upon you for your mercy, for your goodness, for your joy that you bring me.

So this morning, will you, like David, dwell in the house of the Lord? Will you walk closely in relationship with him, trusting his precepts, his statutes, that they're good, that they're perfect, that they're profitable for us. While Psalm 23 in Psalm 23, the shepherd refers to the Lord first, Peter 52 connects the image of shepherds with pastors. So let's take a look at how this picture of a shepherd in Psalm 23 shapes our understanding of what a pastor is.

So as we look at what we see we've seen in Psalm 23, we can see that there's parallels into what a pastor should be. This is an encouragement for me and I hope for all others who aspire towards pastoral ministry. Is that ministry as a shepherd, an under-shepherd of God, following Christ and his leading and headship.

Ministry must, Number one, include teaching of the word of God. That must be done, whether it's from a pulpit, whether it's counseling and ministry like that, whether it's in smaller groups and Bible studies. Throughout the week, the word of God must be taught by those who seek to shepherd.

Number two, restoring people spiritually. We see this example first set by Christ. But those who pastor and lead and shepherd under the headship of Christ must be those that come alongside and restore, those spiritually, that are going their own way, that are going into sin, that are doing things that are wrong, that are displeasing to God.

Next we see there's also a sense of providing for needs. And what this looks like is providing for spiritual needs as people come and say, I'm discouraged right now. I need comfort, I need help, I need to be built up just like the shepherd Jesus, as he provides and takes care.

That's what pastors are called to do spiritually in caring, in building up the body of Christ. Lastly, we see from this text this idea of defending them from attackers. Pastors are those that are called to defend the church, from those who would come in and would teach false doctrine, those that are called to help others, to see where maybe someone they're listening to throughout the week is leading them astray in false doctrine and false teaching.

And to be aware of these things and careful. There's many other things a pastor is called to do. But here's a couple that we've seen just from this text, some parallels of how Jesus as our good shepherd shows us just a glimpse into what pastors may be called to do.

So as we close, we see that Psalm 23, it strikes this intimate tone of close communion with the personal pronouns we've seen throughout and language throughout of this closeness that David has with Christ. Rather than giving commands, it's actually a psalm of confidence in God. There's this sense of this mindset that David walks through life with confidence.

It's because of the God that he serves, the shepherd that takes care of him. And so he recognizes that in life and in death, God is his provider. Furthermore, Psalm 23 beckons us to rest in and be comforted by the great love of our God.

So this morning, consider, do you trust as David did, that the Lord can satisfy you? Recall his promises this week as you have time, go throughout his word and look at the promises that he has given all throughout his word and see that he can satisfy you. He can encourage you. This is the God that we have.

God is faithful to provide for you the precious bread of his word. In verses one to three, are you still delighting in the spiritual sustenance of Scripture or has your heart grown cold? In verse four, are you trusting in God's promised protection? God has promised to supply your needs and to sustain you. He's promised to give direction and protection.

He's promised to bless you abundantly with his mercy, goodness and joy. Can you say with David, the Lord is my shepherd? If not, maybe there's one even today who can't say, the Lord is my shepherd. And how do you know if you can say, the Lord is my shepherd? Well, have you admitted that you're a sinner, that you're in need of Christ? Have you admitted that the Holy God in his holy righteousness, that you don't measure up to his standards, that we have failed? We have sinned.

Have you seen from God's word that there is a savior in Jesus Christ who can save us from our sin? The Bible says that the penalty for sin is death. And that's a big problem. Not just physical death, but spiritual and eternal death forever.

God has said to us that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And so today, if there is one who has not placed their faith in Jesus Christ, who has not seen in God's word that Jesus promises that he died on the cross for our sins, he died taking your sin on the cross, paying the penalty for sin. And he is offered that if we admit that we are sinners like he has said we are, we trust throwing our lives upon the graciousness and mercy of his sacrifice for us, and we turn confessing our sin before him, saying, God, I'm a sinner.

I need your help. I want to follow you, that you can be saved. And so if there's anyone like that and would be interested after in talking, there's many here who would love to share that message with you of faith and of truth.

And so if there is anyone who's not sure, go ahead and find someone. I want every single person here to know that Jesus is their good shepherd. And so as we finish, I want to encourage you.

You can trust the Lord your shepherd and be comforted by his promises. Let's close in a word of prayer. God, we love you so much and our hearts are encouraged, are built up as we look and see just the wonderfulness of your word.

We thank you for this encouraging Psalm, how you have showed us in your word. Just who the shepherd is, who our Savior is. And so I pray that we would go into this week knowing the wonderfulness of our Savior, that we would be encouraged to draw near to him, knowing his love and kindness and gentleness, that we would see him as the gentle Savior, the one who protects us, who provides for us, who gives us our every need, the things that we need.

As you know, God, and you are the one who, as we draw close to you in relationship, you come to us blessing us with abundance. So I pray that this week we would live out these things. We would be encouraged by these things.

It's in your name we pray. Jesus Christ. Amen.

Provision his protection for us and his blessing to us through Psalm 23.